This 2013 photo released courtesy of the San Carlos Apache Tribe shows Vernelda Grant, director of the Historic Preservation and Archaeology Department for the San Carlos Apache Tribe, left, with Vincent Randall, cultural director for the Yavapai-Apache Nation, center, and Wally Davis Jr., vice chairman of the Tonto Apache Tribe, gathered near the Verde River in central Arizona. The San Carlos Apache Tribe is awaiting the return of ceremonial items purchased by a U.S. charitable foundation at a contested Paris auction. (AP Photo/Twila Cassadore, San Carlos Apache Tribe)The Associated Press

This 2013 photo released courtesy of the San Carlos Apache Tribe shows Vernelda Grant, director of the Historic Preservation and Archaeology Department for the San Carlos Apache Tribe, left, with Vincent Randall, cultural director for the Yavapai-Apache Nation, center, and Wally Davis Jr., vice chairman of the Tonto Apache Tribe, gathered near the Verde River in central Arizona. The San Carlos Apache Tribe is awaiting the return of ceremonial items purchased by a U.S. charitable foundation at a contested Paris auction. (AP Photo/Twila Cassadore, San Carlos Apache Tribe)

This 2013 photo released courtesy of the San Carlos Apache Tribe shows Vernelda Grant, director of the Historic Preservation and Archaeology Department for the San Carlos Apache Tribe, left, with Vincent Randall, cultural director for the Yavapai-Apache Nation, center, and Wally Davis Jr., vice chairman of the Tonto Apache Tribe, gathered near the Verde River in central Arizona. Two dozen tribal ceremonial items purchased last year at auction in France are set to return to Arizona. A U.S. charitable foundation paid $530,000 for the hoods and ornate masks to give them to the Hopi and two Apache tribes, which use them to invoke the ancestral spirits in ceremonies. (AP Photo/Twila Cassadore, San Carlos Apache Tribe)The Associated Press

This 2013 photo released courtesy of the San Carlos Apache Tribe shows Vernelda Grant, director of the Historic Preservation and Archaeology Department for the San Carlos Apache Tribe, left, with Vincent Randall, cultural director for the Yavapai-Apache Nation, center, and Wally Davis Jr., vice chairman of the Tonto Apache Tribe, gathered near the Verde River in central Arizona. Two dozen tribal ceremonial items purchased last year at auction in France are set to return to Arizona. A U.S. charitable foundation paid $530,000 for the hoods and ornate masks to give them to the Hopi and two Apache tribes, which use them to invoke the ancestral spirits in ceremonies. (AP Photo/Twila Cassadore, San Carlos Apache Tribe)

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — Two dozen ceremonial items bought last year at auction in France are set to return to Arizona in a way that pays reverence to the beliefs of American Indian tribes.

The masks and hoods invoke the ancestral spirits of the Hopi and Apache Tribes — who consider them living beings in keeping with tradition — and the expectation is they will be treated as such. That means shipping the sacred items free of plastics, bubble wrap or other synthetic material that would be suffocating. The items also should face the direction of the rising sun, have space to breathe, and be spoken to during their journey.

The shipping reflects the deeply sensitive nature of the items that the Los Angeles-based Annenberg Foundation quietly bought for $530,000 at a contested Paris auction two months ago with the goal of sending them back to their tribal homes in eastern Arizona.

The Hopi and two Apache tribes believe the return of the objects, kept largely out of public view, will put tribal members on a healing path and help restore harmony not only in their communities but among humanity.

"The elders have told us the reason we have the ills of society, suicides, murders, domestic violence, all these things, is we're suffering because these things are gone and the harmony is gone," said Vincent Randall, cultural director for the Yavapai-Apache Nation.

The tribes say the items — 21 pieces are headed to the Hopi, two to the San Carlos Apache and one to the White Mountain Apache — were taken from their reservations in the late 19th and 20th centuries at a time when collectors and museums competed for sensitive items from Western tribes. Tribal archaeologists say the objects also could have been traded for food and water, or unrightfully sold.

In Hopi belief, the Kachina friends emerge from the earth and sky to connect people to the spiritual world and to their ancestors. Caretakers, who mostly are men, nurture the masks as if they are the living dead. Visitors to the Hopi reservation won't see the masks displayed on shelves or in museums, and the ritual associated with them is a lifelong learning process.

The San Carlos Apache recount a story of ceremonial items being wrenched from the hands of tribal members who were imprisoned by the U.S. military at Fort Apache. Journal entries from the time showed that hoods, as well as medicine bundles and other prayer items akin to crosses and holy water were taken, said Vernelda Grant, director of the Historic Preservation and Archaeology Department for the San Carlos Apache Tribe.

"Of course you're going to be emotional, and of course it's going to have an effect on your health, the welfare of your people," she said. "It kills them, it killed us emotionally. Those items were taken care of until those times came. We were forced to hand them over so we could get what? A box of rations, a blanket?"

For the San Carlos Apache, the hoods represent the mountain spirits reincarnated in men who make and wear them in ceremonial dances for healing or when girls reach puberty. Each is fashioned by a tribal member endowed with a gift of being a spiritual leader. Once the hoods have been used, they are put away in an undisclosed location in the mountains, known only to the spiritual leader through a revelation from the "ruler of life," or God.